Kill the Term "Orthodox in Union with Rome"!

"Orthodox in Union with Rome" is a typical term that I hear at my Melkite parish a lot. It comes from an ecclesiastically elitist wing in the Church that asserts that the theology they embrace is not "Catholic" but diverts significantly from "Catholic" teachings. I typically don't go into East-West theological debates because they are both unfruitful and they aren't really based on meaningful discrepancies. I will be going over a translation of The Spiritual Combat by Dom Lorenzo Scupoli though in which I wanted to compare with St. Nicodemos and St. Theophan the Recluse's translation titled The Unseen Warfare. It's important to acknowledge how similar we are, not just how different.

I recently shared a lunch with a Roman Catholic parishioner at my parish where we discussed briefly East-West spirituality. The spirituality in the East concentrates significantly more on the doctrine of deification than the West. This is not because it's not Western dogma, but rather because the modernist movement in the Church, while feigning that they "were going back to the ancient teachings", stamped it out. It's all over in Western mysticism. The spirituality in the East also is more resurrectional while the West is concentrated on the crucifixion. It's why you see the Stations of the Cross in a Western rite parish. Whether it's Anglo-Catholic, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Western Rite Orthodox, the Stations of the Cross take a central role in the West.

But other than our minor differences spiritually - and they aren't much - the theology of Eastern Catholics isn't a theology distinct from Catholicism but a theology that exists within Catholicism alongside the West. Our theology focuses and concentrates more on the Patristics, ancient traditions, and first millenium of Christianity than the West. We concentrate far less on scholasticism. We aren't nearly as steeped in Greek philosophy as the West but there are certainly areas where Greek philosophy has been an influence such as in the writings of St. Dionysios the Aeropogite. But we share this theology with the West. The scholastic tradition is indebted to the East. St. Thomas Aquinas is greatly influenced by St. John of Damascus. Without St. John Chrysostom, the West lacks an exegetical school (well, I guess they had St. Jerome as well but St. John Chrysostom is far more influential).

From the East comes the West's legal theology and Church law. As difficult as that may be for many Easterners to admit, remember that it was actually the Justinian Code that played a significant role in developing the legal theories of the West concerning the Papacy and concerning monarchial theories of government. Eastern Catholics aren't "Orthodox in Union with Rome". Our theology is not "Orthodox". Our theology is the birth of Catholicism. It is the birth of the West. Our theology is Catholic in the fullest and most real sense of the term. I'm not "Orthodox in Union with Rome". I'm Greek Catholic. The theology I affirm is catholic. The theology the West affirms is orthodox.